paft conduct implicitly the measure of our prefent; or the prefent the rule of our future; when our past, present, and future conduct must all be brought to another rule. And they who thus "meafure "themselves by themselves, and compare "themselves with themselves, are not "wife," 2 Cor. x. 12.-Again, Others are apt to judge of themselves by the opinions of men, which is the most uncertain rule that can be, for in that very opinion of theirs you may be deceived. How do you know they have really fo good an opinion of you as they profefs? but if they have, have not others as bad? and why fhould not the opinion of these be your rule as well as the opinion of those ? Appeal to felf-flattery for an answer.

However, neither one nor the other of them perhaps appear to know themselves, and how fhould they know you? how is it poffible they fhould have opportunities of knowing you better than you know yourself? A man can never gain a right knowledge of himself from the opinion of others, which is so various, and generally fo ill founded; for men commonly judge by outward appearances, or inward prejudice, and therefore for the most part think and speak of us very much at rans

dom.-Again, Others are for judging of themfelves by the conduct of their fuperiorss who have opportunities and advantages of knowing, acting, and being better; and yet, without vanity be it fpoken, (say they) we are not behind hand with them. But what then? Neither they nor you perhaps are what the obligations of your charac ter indifpenfably require you to be, and what you must be ere you can be happy. But confider how eafily this argument may be turned upon you: You are better than fome, you fay, who have greater oppor tunities and advantages of being good than you have, and therefore your state is safe ; but you yourself have greater opportunities and advantages of being good than fome others have, who are nevertheless better than you; and therefore, by the fame rule, your ftate cannot be fafe. Again, Others judge of themfelves by the common maxims of the vulgar world concerning honour and honefty, virtue and intereft, which maxims, though generally very corrupt, and very contrary to thofe of reafon, confcience, and fcripture, men will follow as a rule, for the fake of the latitude it allows them; and fondly think, that if they ftand right in the opinion of the loweft kind of men, they have no reafon

reason to be fevere upon themselves. Others, whose sentiments are more delicate and refined, they imagine, may be miftaken, or may overftrain the matter. In which perfuafion, they are confirmed, by obferving how feldom the confciences of the generality of men fmite them for thofe things which thefe nice judges condemn as heinous crimes. I need not fay how falfe and pernicious a rule this is.Again, Others may judge of themselves and their ftate by fudden impreffions they have had, or strong impulfes upon their fpirits, which they attribute to the finger of God; and by which they have been fo exceedingly affected, as to make no doubt but that it was the inftant of their converfion: but whether it was or not can never be known but by the conduct of their after lives.-In like manner, others judge of their good ftate by their good frames, though very rare it may be, and very tranfient, foon paffing off like a morning cloud, or as the early dew. "But we "fhould not judge of ourselves by that "which is unufual or extraordinary with

us, but by the ordinary tenor and drift "of our lives. A bad man may feem "good in fome good mood, and a good man may seem bad in some extraordiR

nary

86 nary falls. To judge of a bad man by "his best hours, and a good man by "his worst, is the way to be deceived in "them both *." And the fame way may you be deceived in yourself.-Pharaoh, Ahab, Herod, and Felix, had all of them their foftenings, their tranfitory fits of goodness; but yet they remain upon record under the blackest characters.

These then are all wrong rules of judgment; and to truft to them, or try ourfelves by them, leads to fatal felf-deception. Ágain,

(6.) In the bufinefs of felf-examination, you must not only take care you do not judge by wrong rules, but that you do not judge wrong by right rules. You must endeavour then to be well acquainted with them. The office of a judge is not only to collect the evidence and the circumstances of facts, but to be well skilled in the laws by which those facts are to be examined.

Now the only right rules by which we are to examine, in order to know ourselves, are reafon and feripture. Some are for fetting afide these rules, as too fevere for them, too ftiff to bend to their perverseness, too ftraight to measure their crooked ways;

*Baxter's Direct. pag. 876.

are

are against reason, when reason is against them; decrying it as carnal reafon; and, for the fame caufe, are against scripture too, depreciating it as a dead letter. And thus, rather than be convinced they are wrong, they defpife the only means that can fet them right.

And as fome are for fetting afide each part of their rule, fo others are for setting them one against the other; reafon against fcripture, and fcripture against reafon; when they are both given us by the God of our natures, not only as perfectly confiftent, but as proper to explain and illuftrate each other, and prevent our mistaking either; and to be, when taken together, (as they always fhould) the most complete and only rule by which to judge both of ourselves, and every thing belonging to our falvation, as reasonable and fallen creatures.

(1.) Then, One part of that rule which God hath given us to judge of ourselves by is right reafon: by which I do not mean the reafoning of any particular man, which may be very different from the reasoning of another particular man, and both, it may be, very different from right reafon; because both may be influenced not so much by the reafon and nature of things, as by R 2

partial