And also it will be very useful to desire often the help of more impartial judgments than your own: Fit enim nescio quomodo (inquit Cicero) ut magis in aliis cernamus, quam in nobis met ipsis, siquid delinquitur.' Others can quickly spy our faults, as we can quickly find out theirs: Therefore as poets and painters do expose their works before they finish them, to the common view, that so what is blamed by many may be considered and amended; so should we, in order to the judging of ourselves, observe both what our friends and enemies say of us, and the more suspiciously try what others blame. But especially have some near, judicious friends, that will prudently and faithfully assist you. A true friend is an excellent looking-glass. Saith Seneca, 'Deliberate well first in the choosing of a friend, and then with him deliberate of all things.'

And if you would have the benefits of friendship, discourage not plaindealing. Magis amat objurgator sanans (inquit August.) quam adulator dissimulans.' I know a reprover should be wise, and love must be predominant if he will expect success: for if he speak lacerato animo,' as Augustine saith, it will seem but 'punientis impetus,' and not 'corrigentis charitas.' But we must take heed of judging that we are hated, because we are reproved; that is, that a friend is not a friend, because he doth the office of a friend. Of the two, it is fitter to say of a reproving enemy, 'He dealeth with me like a friend,' than of a reproving friend, He dealeth with me like an enemy:' for, as Augustine saith, 'Accusare vitia officium est bonum, quod cum mali faciunt, alienas partes agunt.' It is a good office to speak ill of vice, which when bad men do, they play another's part. It is a happy enmity that helpeth you to deliver you from sin and hell; and a cruel friendship that will let you undo your soul for ever, for fear of displeasing you by hindering it.

There are two sorts that deprive themselves of the saving benefit of necessary reproof, and the most desirable fruits of friendship: the one is the Hypocrite, that so cunningly hideth his greatest faults, that his friend and enemy never tell him of them: he hath the happiness of keeping his physician unacquainted with his disease, and consequently of keeping the disease. The other is the Proud, that can better endure to be ungodly than to be told of it, and to live in many sins, than to be freely admonished of one.

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Consider therefore, that it will prove self-hatred in the effect, which is now called self-love: and that it would seem but a strange kind of love from another, to suffer you to fall into a coal-pit, for fear of telling you that you are near it ; or to suffer you to fall into the enemy's hands, lest he should affright you, by telling you that they are near. If you love another no better than thus, you have no reason to call yourself his friend and shall this be your wisest loving of yourselves? If it be love to damn your souls for fear of knowing your danger of damnation, the devil loveth you. If it be friendship to keep you out of heaven, for fear of disquieting you with the light that should have saved you, then you have no enemies in hell. The devil himself can be content to grant you a temporal quietness and ease, in order to your everlasting disquietness and woe. Let go your hopes of heaven, and he can let you be merry awhile on earth; while the strong armed man keepeth his house, the things that he possesseth are in peace. If it be not friendship, but enmity, to trouble you with the sight of sin and danger, in order to your deliverance, then you have none but enemies in heaven for God himself doth take this course with the dearest of his chosen. No star doth give such light as the sun doth: no minister doth so much to make a sinner know himself, as God doth. Love yourselves therefore in the way that God loveth you: be impartially willing that God and man should help you to be thoroughly acquainted with your state: love not to be flattered by others, or yourselves. Vice is never the more lovely, because it is yours: and you know that pain is never the more easy or desirable to you, because it is yours. Your own diseases, losses, injuries, and miseries, seem the worst and most grievous to you: and why should not your own sins also be most grievous? You-love not poverty or pain, because it is your own; O love not sin, because it is your own!

Hind. 4. Another impediment to self-acquaintance, is, that men observe not their hearts in a time of trial, but take them always at the best, when no great temptation puts them to it. A man that never had an opportunity to rise in the world, perhaps doth think he is not ambitious, and desireth not much to be higher than he is, because the coal . was never blown. When a little affront doth ferment their VOL. XVI..

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pride into disquietness and desires of revenge; or applause doth ferment it into tumour or self-exaltation, they observe not then the distemper when it is up and most observable, because the nature of sin is to please and blind, and cheat the mind into, a consent. And when the sin seems past, and they find themselves in a seeming humility and meekness, they judge of themselves as then they find themselves, as thinking that distemper is past and cured, and they are not to judge of themselves by what they were, but what they are. And by that rule every drunkard or whoremonger should judge themselves temperate, and chaste, as soon as they forbear the act of sin. And what if poverty, age, or sickness, hinder them from ever committing either of them again? For all this, the person is a drunkard or fornicator still; because the act is not pardoned, nor the heart sanctified, and the habit or corrupt inclination mortified. And thus passionate persons do judge of themselves by their milder temper, when no temptation kindleth the flame. But little doth many a one know himself, what corruption is latent in his heart, till trial shall disclose it, and draw it into sight. Jam diu diabolus (inq. Aug.) sopitum ignem sine ullis flammis occultat, donec duas faculas jungens ambas simul accendat,' &c. If these persons be not always sinning, they will not take themselves for sinners: but he that hath once sinned knowingly, in God's account continueth in the sin, till his heart be changed by true repentance.

Yet, on the other side, I would not wrong any upright soul, by persuading them to judge of themselves, as they are at the worst, in the hour of temptation; for so they will be mistaken as certainly, though not as dangerously as the other.

You may ask them, What is to be done in such a difficult case? If we must neither judge of ourselves as we are at the best out of temptation, nor yet as we are at the worst in the hour of temptation, when, and how then shall we judge of ourselves?'

I answer, it is one thing to know our particular sins, and their degrees, and another thing to know our state in general, whether we are justified and sanctified or not. To discern what particular sin is in us, and how apt it is to break forth into act, we must watch all the stirrings and appearings of it, in the time of the temptation: but to discern whether it be unmortified and have dominion, we must observe these rules:

1. There is no man on earth that is perfectly free from sin: and therefore it is no good consequence that sin reigneth unto death, because it is not perfectly extinguished, or because it is sometimes committed, unless in the cases after expressed.

2. No sin that is truly mortified and repented of, shall condemn the sinner: for pardon is promised to the truly penitent.

3. Whatever sin the will, according to its habitual inclination, had rather leave than keep, is truly repented of and mortified. For the will is the principal seat of sin; and there is no more sinfulness, than there is wilfulness.

4. There are some sins which cannot be frequently committed in consistency with true grace, or sincere répentance; and some which may be frequently committed in consistency with these. As where sins are known and great, or such as are easily subject to the power of a sanctified will, so that he that will reject them, may: as one such sin must have actual repentance, if actually known; so the frequent committing of such will not consist with habitual repentance. Whereas those sins, that are so small as upright persons, perhaps may not be sufficiently excited to resistance; or such as upon the sincere use of means are still unknown, or such as a truly sanctified will may not subdue, are all of them consistent with repentance and a justified state and in this sense we reject not that distinction between moral and venial sin; that is, between sin inconsistent with a state of spiritual life, and sin consistent with it, and consequently pardoned. He that had rather leave the former sort, (the mortal sins,) will leave them; and he that truly repents of them, will forsake them. But for the other (consistent with life) we must say, that a man may possibly retain them, that yet had rather leave them, and doth truly repent of them.

5. A sin of carnal interest (esteemed good, in order to something which the flesh desireth; and so loved and deliberately kept) hath more of the will, and is more inconsistent with repentance, than a sin of mere passion or surprise, which is not so valued upon the account of such an interest.

6. They that have grace enough to avoid temptations to mortal or reigning sin, and consequently that way to avoid the sin, shall not be condemned for it, whatever a stronger temptation might have done.

7. Where bodily diseases necessitate to an act, or the

omission of an act, the will is not to be charged with that which it cannot overcome, notwithstanding an unfeigned willingness. As if a man in a frenzy or distraction should swear or curse, or blaspheme; or one in a lethargy, or potent melancholy, cannot read, or pray, or meditate, &c.

8. As frequent commissions of venial sins (or such as are consistent with true grace) will not prove the soul unsanctified; so the once committing of a gross sin by sur prise, which is afterward truly repented of, will not prove the absence of habitual repentance, or spiritual life, so as the frequent committing of such sins will.

So that I conclude, in order to the detection of the sin itself, we must all take notice of ourselves as at the worst, and see what it is that temptation can do: but in order to the discovery of our state, and whether our sins are pardoned or no, we must especially observe whether their eruptions are such as will consist with true habitual repentance, and to note what temptations do with us. To this end,

Direct. 4. Observe then the workings and discoveries of the heart, and judge of its abundance, or habits, by your words and deeds. Note what you were when you had opportunity to sin, when the full cup of pleasure was held out to you, when preferment was before you, when injury or provoking words did blow the coal: if then sin appeared, judge not that you are free, and that none of the roots are latent in your hearts: or if you are sure that such dispositions are hated, repented of and mortified, yet you may hence observe: what diseases of soul you should chiefly strive against, to keep them under, and prevent a new surprise or increase. It is usual for such licentiousness, such selfseeking, such ugly pride and passion, to break forth upon some special temptations, which for many years together did never appear to the person that is guilty, or to any other, that it should keep the best in fear and self-suspicion, and cause them to live in constant watchfulness, and to observe the bent and motions of their souls; and to make use afterward of such discoveries as they have made to their cost in time of trial.

And it much concerneth all true Christians, to keep in remembrance the exercise and discoveries of grace, which formerly upon trial did undoubtedly appear, and did convince them of the sincerity which afterward they are apt