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 importunately for the life of their immortal souls, that now take up with a few words of course, instead of serious, fervent prayer! Do but once know yourselves aright, know what you are, and what you have done, and what you want, and what is your danger; and then be prayerless and careless if you can: Then sit still and trifle out your time, and make a jest of holy diligence, and put God off with lifeless words and compliments if you can. Men could not think so lightly and contemptuously of Christ, so unworthily and falsely of a holy life, so delightfully of sin, so carelessly of duty, so fearlessly of hell, so senselessly and atheistically of God, and so disregardfully of heaven as they now do, if they did but thoroughly know themselves.

And now, sirs, methinks your consciences should begin to stir, and your thoughts should be turned inwards upon yourselves, 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 use to make of this doctrine, and of all that hath been said upon it? Doth it not reprove you for your selfneglect, and your wanderings of mind, and your alien, unnecessary fruitless cogitations? Had you been but as strange to your familiar friend, and as regardless of his acquaintance, correspondence and affairs, 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 yourselves. Would not he ask, What is the matter that my friend so seldom looketh at me; and no more mindeth me or my affairs? 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 yourselves.

In order to your conviction and reformation, I shall first shew you some of those reasons, that should move you to know yourselves, and consequently should humble you for neglecting it: and then I shall shew you what are the hin

drances that keep men from self-acquaintance, and give your some directions necessary to attain it.

In general consider, it is by the light of knowledge that all the affairs of your souls must be directed: and therefore while you know not yourselves, you are in the dark, and unfit to manage your own affairs. Your principal error about yourselves 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 perform. 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 general 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 condemn you. How can you repent of your pride, hypocrisy, self-love, self-seeking, your want of love, and fear, 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 slight and superficial sight of your sinful state and your particular sins, you can have but a superficial, false repentance.

2. If you know not yourselves, you cannot be duly sensible of your misery. Could it be expected that the Pharisees should lament, that they were of their father the devil, as long as they boasted that they were the children of God? (John viii. 41. 44.) Will they lament that they are under the wrath of God, the curse of the law, and the bondage of the devil, 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. viii. 6-8,) and that "without holiness none

shall see God," (Heb. xii. 14,) and that all "they shall be damned that believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness," (2 Thess. ii. 12,) and that "Christ will come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel 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 glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that do believe." (2 Thess. i. 7-10.) 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 slight 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 judgment, even condemned already; for so God saith, John iii. 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, (Acts ii. 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 it is themselves, that all the terrible threatenings of God do mean. Most of them little believe or consider what Scripture saith; but fewer consider what conscience hath to say within, when once it is awakened, and the curtain is drawn back, and the light appeareth. The first proposition inferreth not the conclusion; and the assumption they overlook. Did all that read and hear the Scriptures know themselves, I will tell you how they would hear and read it. When the Scripture saith, "To be carnally minded is death:" and "If ye live after the flesh ye shall die," (Rom. viii. 8. 13,) the guilty hearer would say, I am

carnally minded: and I live after the flesh: therefore I must turn or die. When the Scripture saith, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also," (Matt. vi. 21,) The guilty conscience would assume, my heart is not in heaven, therefore my treasure is not there. When Scripture saith,

Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven," (Matt. xviii. 3,) and "Except a man be regenerate and born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," (John iii. 3. 5,) and "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away, behold all things are become new," (2 Cor. v. 17,) and " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his," (Rom. viii. 9,) The guilty hearer would assume, I was never thus converted, regenerate, born again, and made a new creature: I have not the Spirit of Christ: therefore I am none of his, and cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven, till this change be wrought upon me. When the Scripture saith, "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge," (Heb. xiii. 4,) The guilty hearer would say, How then shall I be able to stand before him?

Yea, did but hearers know themselves, they would perceive their danger from remoter principles, that mention the dealing of God with others. When they hear of the judgment of God upon the ungodly, and the enemies of the church, they would say, "Except I repent, I shall likewise perish." (Luke xiii. 3. 5.) When they hear that "judgment must begin at the house of God," they would infer "What shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel of God? And when they hear that "the righteous are scarcely saved," they would think "Where then shall the ungodly and sinner appear?" (1 Peter iv. 17, 18.)

3. If you know not yourselves, you cannot be Christians: you cannot have a practical belief in Christ; for he is offered to you in the Gospel, as the remedy for your misery; as the ransom for your enthralled souls; as the propitiation for your sin, and your peace-maker with the Father; without whose merit, satisfaction, righteousness, and intercession, your guilty souls can have no hope. And can you savingly value him in these respects, if you know not that sin and misery, that guilt and thraldom, in which your need of Christ consisteth? Christ is esteemed by you according to the judgment you pass upon yourselves.

They that say they are sinners, from a general brainknowledge, will accordingly say Christ is their Saviour and their hope, with a superficial belief, and will honour him with their lips with all the titles belonging to the Redeemer of the world: but they that feel that they are deadly sick of sin at the very heart, and are lost for ever if he do not save them, will feel what the name of a Saviour signifieth, and will look to him as the Israelites to the brazen serpent, and cast themselves at his feet, for the crumbs of grace, and will yield up themselves to be saved by him, in his way. An ineffectual knowledge of yourselves, may make you believe in a Redeemer, as all the city do of a learned, able physician, that will speak well of his skill, and resolve to use him when necessity constraineth them; but at present they find no such necessity. But an effectual sight and sense of your condition, will bring you to Christ, as a man in a dropsy or consumption comes to the physician; that feels he must have help or die. Saith Bernard, 'Filium Dei non reputat Jesum, qui ipsius non terretur comminationibus, &c.' You will not take the Son of God for a Saviour, if you be not affrighted by his threatenings. And if you perceive not that you are lost, you will not heartily thank him that came to seek and save you. • Non consolantur Christi lachrymæ cachinnantes; non consolantur panni ejus ambulantes in stolis; non consolantur stabulum et præsepe amantes primas cathedras in synagogis.' Saith Bernard, Christ's tears do not comfort them that laugh: his rags do not comfort them that (love to) walk in robes: his stable and manger comfort not them that love the highest seats in the synagogues. Can you seek to Christ to take you up, till you find that you have fallen and hurt you? Will you seek to him to fetch you from the gates of hell, that find not that you are there?

But to the self-condemning soul that knoweth itself, how welcome would a Saviour be? How ready is such a soul for Christ? Thou that judgest thyself art the person that must come to Christ to justify thee. Now thou are ready to be healed by him, when thou findest that thou art sick, and dead hast thou received the sentence of death in thyself? Come to him now and thou shalt have life. (John v. 40; 1 John v. 11.) Art thou weary and heavy laden? Come to

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