command of self-examination and self-judging. Though some may be welcomed by Christ, that have faith and love, though they doubt of their sincerity, and know not themselves to be children of God; yet none can be welcome that know not themselves to be sinners condemned by the law, and needing a Saviour to reconcile and justify them. Who will be there humbled at the feet of grace, and thankful for a Redeemer, and hunger and thirst for sacramental benefits, that knoweth not his own unworthiness and necessities? O what inestimable would mercy in a sacraappear ment to us, in the offers of Christ and saving grace, and communion with God and with his saints, if our appetites were but quickened by the knowledge of ourselves! 9. And I beseech you consider, whether all your studies, and learning, and employments, be not irrational, preposterous and impertinent, while you study not first to know yourselves? You are nearest to yourselves, and therefore should be best acquainted with yourselves. What should you more observe than the case of your own souls! and what should you know better than what is within you, and what you carry still about you, and that which methinks. you should always feel; even the bent of your own estimations and affections; the sicknesses of your souls; your guilt, your wants and greatest necessities. All your learning is but the concomitant of your dotage till you know yourselves. Your wisest studies are but the workings of a distracted mind, while you study not yourselves, and the things of everlasting consequence. The wise man was but derided by the standers-by, that fell overhead into a ditch, whilst he was busily taking the height of a star. To study whether it be the sun or earth that moveth, and not consider what motion is predominant in thy soul and life, is a pitiful, preposterous study: To think more what stars are in the firmament, than what grace is in thy heart; and what planet reigneth, than what disposition reigneth in thyself; and whether the spirit or the flesh have the dominion, is but to be learnedly besides thyself. VOL. XVI. Illum ego jure Despiciam, qui scit quanto sublimior Atlas H Is it not a laborious madness to travel into far countries, and compass sea and land, to satisfy a curiosity; and to be at so much cost and pains to know the situation, government, and manners, of the cities and countries of the world, and in the meantime to be utterly strange at home, and never bestow one day or hour in a serious survey of heart and life? To carry about a dark, unknown, neglected soul, while they are travelling to know remotest things that less concern them? Methinks it is a pitiful thing, to hear men ingeniously discoursing of the quality, laws and customs of other nations, and of the affairs of princes, and commonwealths, and of the riches and commodities of sea and land, and to be mute when they should express their acquaintance with themselves, either in confession and prayer to God, or in any humble, experimental conference with men. To trade abroad, and utterly neglect the trade of godliness at home. To keep correspondence with persons of all degrees, and to have no correspondence with themselves. To keep their shop-books and accounts with diligence, and never regard the book of conscience, nor keep account of that for which they must ere long be accountable to God. It is a pitiful thing to see men turn over voluminous histories, to know what hath been done from the beginning of the world, and regard no more the history of their own lives, nor once look back with penitent remorse upon their ungodly, careless conversations, nor say, 'What have we done?' To see men have well-furnished libraries, and read over a multitude of books, and never read the state and records of their souls! Quid juvat immensos scire atque evolvere casus, Si facienda fugis, si fugienda facis? It maketh you but objects of wonder and compassion, to read laws and records, and understand all cases, and never endeavour to understand the case of your immortal souls! To counsel others for their temporal estates, and never understand your own spiritual state! To study the mysteries of nature, and search into all the works of God, except yourselves, and that which your happiness or misery doth depend on! To study the nature, and causes, and signs of bodily diseases, and their several remedies, and never study the diseases of your own souls, nor the precious remedy which mercy hath provided you. To cure the sicknesses of other men's bodies, and never feel a stony, proud or sensual heart, nor use any care and industry for the cure! To know the matters of all arts and sciences, to be able to discourse of them all to the admiration of the hearers, is but an aggravation of thy lamentable folly, if thou be all this while a stranger to thyself, and that because thou art mindless of thy soul's condition. You would but laugh at such a learned fool that knew not how to dress himself, or eat, or drink, or go, and yet could talk of the profoundest speculations in metaphysics or other sciences. It is more necessary to know yourselves, your sin, your duty, your hopes, your dangers, than to know how to eat, or drink, or clothe yourselves. Alas, it is a pitiful kind of knowledge, that will not keep you out of hell; and a foolish wisdom that teaches you not to save your souls. 'Per veram scientiam itur ad disciplinam; per disciplinam ad bonitatem; per bonitatem ad beatitudinem,' saith Hugo. Till you know yourselves, the rest of your knowledge is but a confused dream: When you know the thing, you know not the end, and use, and worth of it. Self-knowledge will direct you in all your studies, and still employ you on that which is necessary, and will do you good, when others are studying but unprofitable, impertinent things; and indeed are but "proud, knowing nothing (when they seem to excel in knowledge) but doting about questions and strifes. of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, that take gain for godliness." (1 Tim. vi. 4, 5.) Self-knowledge will help you in all your studies, to know, 'Quo ordine, quo studio, quo fine unumquodque scire oporteat. Quo ordine; ut illud prius, quod maturius movet ad salutem: Quo studio; ut illud ardentius, quod vehementius ad amorem: Quo fine; ut non ad inamen gloriam et ostentationem, sed ad tuam et aliorum salutem,' saith Bernard. You will know in what order, with what study, and to what end every thing should be known: In what order, that that may go first, that most promoteth our salvation: With what study or desire; that we may know that most ardently, which most vehemently provoketh love: To what end, that it be not for vainglory and ostentation, but for your own and other men's salvation. And as it is ourselves and our own affairs that are nearest to us, and therefore first in order to be known; so it is ourselves that we have a special charge of, and that we are most obliged to study and to know; and it is our own condition and soul affairs that most concern us. Though sun, and moon, and earth, be not little things in themselves; yet the knowledge of them is a small, inconsiderable matter to thee, in comparison of the knowledge of thyself. The words even of Seneca are so pungent on this subject, that I shall recite some of them to shame those professed Christians that are so much short of a heathen. Quid ad virtutem viam sternit syllabarum enerratio, verborum diligentia et fabularum memoria, et versuum lex et modificatio? Quid ex his metum demit, cupiditatem frænat?' What furtherance to virtue is the enarration of syllables, the diligence of words, the remembering of fables, and the law and modification of verses? What of these taketh away fear, and bridleth concupiscence ? 'Metiri me geometer docet latifundia: potius doceat quomodo metiar quantum homini satis sit: Docet quomodo nihil perdam ex finibus meis: at ego discere volo quomodo totum hilaris amittam. Scis rotunda metiri: si artifex es, metire hominis animum; dic quam magnus, dic quam pusillus sit. Scis quæ recta sit linea: quid tibi prodest si quid in vita rectum sit ignoras?' The geometrician teacheth me to measure spacious grounds: let him rather teach me to measure how much is sufficient for a man: He teacheth me how I may lose nothing of my possessions: but that which I would learn is, how I may lose all with a cheerful mind. Thou canst measure rounds; if thou be an artist, measure the mind of man; tell him how great it is, or how little or low. Thou knowest a straight line: and what the better art thou if thou know not what is right or straight in thy own life? Hoc scire quid proderit, ut solicitus sim, quum Saturnus et Mars è contrario stabunt? - Illa liberalium artium consectatio molestos, intempestivos, verbosos, sibi placentes facit, et ideo non discentes necessaria, quia supervacua didicerunt.' What good will it do me, that I should be solicitous to know when Saturn and Mars will stand in opposition?. This diligent study of the liberal arts, doth make men troublesome, unseasonable, wordy, self-pleasing, and such as therefore learn not things necessary, because they have learned things superfluous. When our nearer, greater works are done, then those that are more distant will be seasonable, and useful, and excellent in their proper places. When men understand the state and affairs of their souls, and have made sure of their everlasting happiness, they may then seasonably and wisely manage political and economical affairs, and prudently order and prosecute their temporal concernments: when they "first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness," subordinate things may be seasonably considered. But for a man to be taken up about matters of law, or trade, or pleasure, when he mindeth not the matters of his salvation; and to study languages, arts and sciences, when he studieth not how to escape damnation, is not to be learned, but to dote; nor to be honourably or prudently employed, but to walk as a 'noctambulo,' a man in a dream, and live besides the reason of a man, as well as below the faith of a Christian : These seemingly wise and honourable worldlings, that labour not to know what state and relation they stand in towards God, and his judgment, do live in a more pernicious distraction than he that is disputing in mood and figure while his house is burning over his head, or he that is learning to fiddle or dance, when he is assaulted by an enemy, or to be tried for his life. Even works of charity seem but absurd, preposterous acts, in those that are not charitable to themselves. To be careful to feed or clothe the bodies of the poor, and senseless of the nakedness and misery of your own souls, is an irrational, distracted course of mercy: As if a man should be diligent to cure another of a bile, while he minds not the plague or leprosy upon himself: or should be busy to pull a thorn out of another's finger, and senseless of a stab that is given himself in the bowels or at the heart. To love yourself, and not your neighbour, is selfish, unsociable and uncharitable. To love neither your neighbour nor yourself, is inhuman: To love your neighbour and not yourself, is preposterous, irrational, and scarcely possible. But to love first yourself (next God,) and then to love your neighbour as yourself, is regular, orderly, Christian charity. 10. Consider also, that the ignorance of yourselves doth much unfit you to be useful unto others. If you are Magistrates, you will never be soundly faithful against the sin of others, till you have felt how hurtful it is to yourselves. If |