31.

Ελ αυτοὺς

Gal. vi. 4.

are my thoughts serious, seasonable, and pure? Whither SERM. do I propend? are my inclinations compliant to God's XLIV. law and good reafon? What judgments do I make of things? are my apprehenfions clear, folid, fure, built upon no corrupt prejudice? What doth most easily stir me, and how is my heart moved? are my affections calm, and orderly, and well placed? What plots do I contrive, what projects am I driving on? are my defigns good, are my intentions upright and fincere? Let me thoroughly inquire into these points, let me be fully fatisfied in them: thus should we continually be doing. The holy Scripture doth often bid us to judge ourselves; to examine our works; to fearch and try; to weigh, to heed, to watch over our ways: If, faith St. Paul, we would judge (difcern, or 1 Cor. xi. diftinguish) ourselves, we should not be judged; that is, we Euros fhould avoid those miscarriages which bring the divine d judgments upon us: and, Let us, faith the prophet Jere- Lam. iii. my, fearch and try our ways, and turn unto the Lord; 40. and, I faid, I will take heed to my ways, faith the Pfalmift ; Pf. xxxix. and, Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be Prov. iv. 26. eftablished, is the Wife Man's advice. Search our ways, and ponder our paths; this implies that we firft do examine and weigh our hearts, for there our ways begin, thence is motion derived to our feet and to our hands alfo; all our actions depend as effects of them, all do receive their moral quality thence: whatever in our doings is good or bad, šowder éxπopeúetαi, doth, as our Lord expreffes it, iffue from Mark vii. within us; our actions are but ftreams, fweet or bitter, clear or foul, according to the tincture they receive at thofe inward fources of good or evil inclinations, of true or falfe judgments, of pure or corrupt intention: there consequently we are principally obliged to exercise the fcrutiny and trial required of us.

1.

23.

Socrates is reported to have much admired that verse in Gell. xiv. Homer,

Οττι τοι ἐν μεγάροισι κακόντ' ἀγαθόντε τέτυκται

affirming, that in it the fum of all wifdom is comprised; the fenfe and drift thereof being this, as he took it: Seek

6.

SERM. and ftudy what good or bad is at home, within thy houfe; XLIV. fee how all goes in thy breaft; employ thy chief inquiry upon the affairs of thy foul; there confining thy curiofity and care.

Such is the duty; and the practice thereof is of huge profit and use, bringing many great benefits and advantages with it; the neglect of it is attended with many grievous inconveniences and mifchiefs: and for perfuading to the one, diffuading from the other, I fhall propound some of them, such as are most obvious, and offer themfelves to my meditation.

The moft general and most immediate advantage arifing hence is this, that, by fuch a conftant and careful infpection, or study upon our hearts, we may arrive to a competent knowledge of, and a true acquaintance with ourselves, (a most useful knowledge, a most beneficial acquaintance,) Jer. xvii. 9. neither of them being otherwise attainable. The heart, as you know the Prophet fays, is deceitful above all things; and who, adds he, can know it? Who can know it? None, it seems, but God that made it, and the man that hath it: he that hath it must, I say, be able competently to know it: even in regard to him the question may intimate some difficulty, but it doth not denote an abfolute impoffibility. Hard it may be for us to know the heart, by reason of its deceitfulness; but the fliest imposture, if narrowly looked into, may be detected: it is a very fubtile and abstruse, a very various and mutable thing; the multiplicity of objects it doth converse with, the divers alterations it is fubject to from bodily temper, cuftom, company, example, other unaccountable caufes; especially its proneness to comply with, and to fuit its judgments of things unto prefent circumstances without, and prefent appetites within, do render it fuch; wherefore it is not indeed easy to know it; but yet poffible it is; for under fevere penalties we are obliged not to be deceived by it, or, which is all one, not 1 Cor. iii. to fuffer it to be deceived: Let no man, faith St. Paul, deLuke xxi.8, ceive himfelf: See that ye be not deceived, faith our Saviour: Deut. xi. Take heed, faith Mofes, to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived. Such precepts there are many, obliging us to

18.

16.

6, 10.

know our hearts, and to discover the fallacies put on them, SERM. or upon us by them; carrying with them directions how XLIV. to compafs it; that is, by looking about us, and taking heed, by careful circumfpection and caution. It is therefore a feasible thing to avoid being impofed upon, and well to understand ourselves: but as other abftrufe pieces of knowledge, fo this especially cannot be attained without induftrious applications of our mind, and conftant obfervations, to find the corners wherein the deceit lurks; we must pursue its fecret windings and intrigues; we must trace it step by step, as hunters do wild beafts, into the utmost recesses of its first desires and most deeply radicated prejudices; we must do as David did, when he ftrove to free himself from diftruft and impatience in his ftraits: IPfal. Ixxvii. communed with my own heart, faith he, and my Spirit made' diligent fearch: by which practice he found, as he farther acquaints us, that it was his infirmity, which moved him to doubt of God's mercy and benignity toward him. Cicero, having fomewhere commended philofophy as the most excellent gift by Heaven beftowed upon man, affigns this reafon: because it teaches us, as all other things, fo especially this of all moft difficult thing, to know ourselvesa. But he, with his favour, doth feem to promise for his friend more than fhe is able to perform; the main part of this knowledge doth lie beyond the reach of any particular method; the empyric feems to have more to do here than the doctor. Philofophy may perhaps afford us some plaufible notions concerning the nature of our foul, its ftate, its power, its manners of acting; it may prescribe fome wide directions about proceeding in the discovery of ourselves; but the particular knowledge (and therein the chief difficulty lieth) of ourselves, how our fouls ftand inclined and difpofed, that only our particular earnest study and affiduous obfervation can yield unto us; and it is an inestimable advantage to obtain it. All men are very curious and inquifitive after knowledge; the being endued therewith

• Hæc enim una nos cum cæteras res omnes, tum quod eft difficillimum docuit, ut nosmetipfos nofceremus. Cic. de Leg. 1.

SERM. paffeth for a goodly ornament, a rich poffeffion, a matter XLIV. of great fatisfaction, and much use: men are commonly afhamed of nothing fo much as ignorance; but if any knowledge meriteth efteem for its worth and usefulness, this, next to that concerning Almighty God, may furely best pretend thereto; if any ignorance deferveth blame, this certainly is most liable thereto: to be ftudious in contemplating natural effects, and the caufes whence they proceed; to be verfed in the writings and ftories of other men's doings; to be pragmatical obfervers of what is faid or done without us, (that which perchance may little concern, little profit us to know,) and in the mean while to be ftrangers at home, to overlook what paffeth in our own breasts, to be ignorant of our most near and proper concernments, is a folly, if any, to be derided, or rather greatly to be pitied, as the fource of many great inconveniences to us. For it is from ignorance of ourselves that we mistake ourselves for other persons than we really are; and accordingly we behave ourselves toward ourselves with great indecency and injuftice; we affume and attribute to ourfelves that which doth not anywife belong unto us, or become us: as put case we are ignorant of the perfons we converfe with, as to their quality, their merit, their humour; we fhall be apt to mifcall and mistake them; to mifbehave ourselves in our demeanour toward them; to yield them more or less respect than befits them; to cross them rudely, or unhandfomely to humour them: in like manner, if we be ftrangers to our hearts, fhall we carry ourselves toward our ownfelves; we shall hence, like men in a frenzy, take ourselves for extraordinary people, rich, and noble, and mighty, when indeed, our condition being duly estimated, we are wretchRev. iii. 17. edly mean and beggarly. We do frequently hug ourfelves, (or rather fhadows in our room,) admiring ourselves for qualities not really being in us; applauding ourselves for actions nothing worth, fuch as proceed from ill principles, and aim at bad ends; whenas, did we turn our thoughts inwards, and regard what we find in our hearts, by what inclinations we are moved, upon what grounds

defcendere,

nemo.

we proceed, we should be ashamed, and fee cause rather to SER M. bemoan than to blefs ourselves: defcending into ourselves, XLIV. we might perchance difcern that moft of our gallant per-Ut nemo in formances (fuch as not confidering our hearts we presume fefe tentat them to be) are derived from felf-love or pride; from defire of honour, or love of gain; from fear of damage or difcredit in the world, rather than out of love, reverence, and gratitude toward God, of charity, compaffion, and goodwill toward our brethren, of sober regard to our own true welfare and happiness; which are the only commendable principles and grounds of action. St. Luke telleth us of Luke xviii. certain men, who perfuaded themselves that they were". righteous, and defpifed others; upon occafion of whom our Saviour dictated the parable of the Pharifee and Publican. Whence, think we, came that fond confidence in themfelves, and proud contempt of others? From ignorance furely of themselves, or from not obferving those bad difpofitions, thofe wrong opinions, thofe corrupt fountains within, from whence their fuppofed righteous deeds did flow b. If any man, faith St. Paul, giving an account of Gal. vi. 3. fuch prefumptions, thinks himself to be fomething, when he is nothing, savrov Opevanara, he cheats himself in his mind; but let every man examine his work, and then he shall have rejoicing in himself alone, (or privately with himself;) Πρὸς ἑαυτὸν fome, he implieth, do impose upon and delude themselves, vor. imagining themselves fomebodies, (endued forfooth with admirable qualities, or to have achieved very worthy deeds;) whenas, if they would inquire into themfelves, they fhould find no fuch matter; that themselves were no fuch men, and their works no fuch wonders: but if, faith he, a man doth, δοκιμάζειν ἑαυτῶ τὸ ἔργον, explore and examine what he doeth, and in refult thereof doth clearly perceive, that he acteth upon good reasons, and with honeft intentions, then may he indeed enjoy a folid interior fatisfaction, (a true xaúxyμa, or exultation of mind,) whatever others, not acquainted with those inward springs of his motion, do please to judge of him and his proceedings. No man indeed can truly value himself, or well approve of his own

ὁ Ῥᾷσον ἑαυτὸν ἀπατᾷν, καὶ οἴεσθαι εἶναί τι ἐδὲν ὄντα, ὑπὸ τῆς κινῆς δόξης φυσι Surrey, Nazianz. Orat. 27.