others cannot; but the fool is blind to those blemiffes in his character, which are confpicuous to every body else. Whence it appears, that felf-knowledge is that which

makes the main difference between a wife man and a fool, in the moral fenfe of that word.

CHAP. VII.

Concerning the Knowledge of our Conflitutional

VI.

Sins.

ELF-ACQUAINTANCE fhews a man the particular fins he is moft expofed and addicted to; and difcovers not only what is ridiculous, but what is criminal, in his conduct and temper.

A man's outward actions are generally the plaineft index of his inward difpofitions and by the allowed fins of his life you may know the reigning vices of his mind. Is he addicted to luxury and debauch? fenfuality then appears to be his prevailing taste. Is he given to revenge and cruelty? choler and malice then reign in his heart. Is he confident, bold and enterprizing? ambition appears to be the fecret fpring. Is he fly and defigning, given to intrigue and artifice ? you may conclude, there is a natural fubtilty of tem

per that prompts him to this; and this fecret difpofition is criminal, in proportion to the degree in which these outward actions, which spring from it, tranfgrefs the bounds of reafon and virtue.

Every man hath fomething peculiar in the turn or caft of his mind, which diftinguishes him as much as the particular conflitution of his body and both these, viz. his particular turn of mind, and conftitution of body, not only incline and dispose him to fome kind of fins, more than to others, but render the practice of certain virtues much more eafy *.

Now

* Men, with regard to their bodies, and bodily appetites, are pretty much alike; but with regard to their fouls, and their mental taftes and difpofitions, they are often as different as if they were quite of another species; governed by different views, entertained with different pleafures, animated with different hopes, and affected by different motives and diftinguished by as different tempers and inclinations, as if they were not of the fame kind. Whence, I am very ready to believe, that there is not a greater difference between an angel, and fome of the best and wifeft of men, or between a devil, and fome of the worst and wickedeft of men, with regard to their tempers and difpofitions, than there is between fome fort of men, and fome others. And what inclines me to this fentiment is, confidering the eafy tranfition which nature always obferves in paffing from one order or kind of beings to another, (which I have

before

Now thefe fins to which men are commonly moft inclined, and the temptations to which they have leaft power to refift, are, and not improperly, called their conftitutional fins; their peculiar frailties; and, in Scripture, their own iniquities, and the fins which † do moft eafily befet them (u).

As in the humours of the body, so in the vices of the mind, there is one pre⚫ dominant; which has an ascendant over us, and leads and governs us. It is in 'the body of fin, what the heart is in the body of our nature; it begins to live firft, and dies laft. And whilft it lives, it ' communicates life and fpirit to the whole body of fin; and when it dies, the body of fin expires with it. It is the fin to F 2

- which

before taken notice of) together with the prodigious difference there appears to be between some and others of the human fpecies, almost in every thing belonging to their fouls. For fome there are, in whom (as one expreffes it) one would think nature had placed every thing the wrong way' depraved in their opinions, unintelligible in their reasoning, irregular in their actions, and vicious in every difpofition. Whilft in fome others we see almost every thing amiable and excellent that can adorn and exalt the human mind, under the disadvantages of mortality.

*Pfalm xviii. 23. + Heb. xii. 1.

(u) n aμastia suwepisal, the well circumftanced fin.

which our conftitution leads, our cir'cumstances betray, and cuftom inflaves us; the fin to which not our virtues only, but

vices too, lower their topfail, and fubmit; the fin which, when we would impose upon GoD and our confciences, we difguife with all imaginable fophiftry; but, ⚫ when we are fincere with both, we oppose firft, and conquer laft. It is, in a word, the fin which reigns and rules in the unregenerate, and too often alarms and difturbs (ah! that I could fay no more) the regenerate (w).

Some are more inclined to the fins of the flesh fenfuality, intemperance, uncleanness, floth, felf-indulgence, and excefs in animal gratifications. Others to the fins of the fpirit; pride, malice, covetoufness, ambition, wrath, revenge, envy, &c. And I am perfuaded there are few, but, upon a thorough fearch into themselves, they find that fome one of these fins hath ordinarily a greater power over them than the rest. Others often obferve it in them, if they themselves do not. And for a man not to know his predominant iniquity is great felfignorance indeed; and a fign that he has all his life lived far from home; because he is not acquainted with that relating to himself, which

(w) Dr. Lucas's Sermons, vol, i. pag. 151.

which every one, who is but half an hour in his company, perhaps may be able to inform him of. Hence proceeds that extreme weakness which fome discover in cenfuring others, for the very fame faults they are guilty of themselves, and perhaps in a much higher degree; on which the apostle Paul animadverts, Rom. ii. 1. (x)

It must be owned, it is an irksome and difagreeable business for a man to turn his own accufer; to fearce after his own faults, and keep his eye upon that which gives him fhame and pain to fee. It is like tearing open an old wound: but it is better to do this, than to let it mortify. The wounds of the confcience, like thofe of the body, cannot be well cured till they are searched to the bottom; and they cannot be searched without pain. A man that is engaged in the ftudy of himself, must be content to know the worst of himself (y).

(x) Quis tulerit Gracchos de feditione quærentes? Clodius accufat Mæchos? Catalina Cethegum? Juv. Sat, 12.

(y) O nimis gravis anguftia! Si me infpicio, non tolero meipfum: fi non infpicio, nefcio meipfum. Si me confidero, terret me facies mea; fi me non confidero, fallit me damnatio mea. me video, horror eft intolerabilis: fi non video, mors eft inevitabilis. O grievous freight! if I look

Si

into