would it make in their cares, and their desires and conversations! "What strive you for, O worldlings? what is here but a brittle glass full of dangers? and by how many dangers must you come to greater dangers? Away with these vanities and toys, and let us set ourselves to see the things that have no end."-Augustine.

8. It is for want of self-acquaintance that any man is proud. Did men considerately know what they are, how quickly would it bring them low! Would corruptible flesh, that must shortly turn to loathsome rottenness, be stout and lordly, and look so high, and set forth itself in gaudy ornaments, if men did not forget themselves? Did rulers behave themselves as those that are subjects to the Lord of all, and have the greatest need to fear his judgment, and prepare for their account: did great ones live as men that know that rich and poor are equal with the Lord, who respects not persons; and that they must speedily be levelled with the lowest, and their dust. be mixed with the common earth, what an alteration would it make in their deportment and affairs! and what a mercy would it prove to their inferiors and themselves! If men that swell with pride of parts, and overvalue their knowledge, wit, or elocution, did know how little indeed they know, and how much they are ignorant of, it would much abate their pride and confidence. The more men know indeed, the more they know to humble them. It is the novices, that, "being lifted up with pride, do fall into the condemnation of the devil." They would loathe themselves if they knew themselves.

9. It is self-ignorance that makes men rush upon

temptations, and choose them, when they customarily pray against them. Did you know what tinder lodgeth in your natures, you would guard your eyes and ears, and appetites, and be afraid of the least spark; you would not be indifferent as to your company, nor choose a life of danger to your souls, for the pleasing of your flesh; to live among the snares of honour, or beauty and bravery, or sensual delights; you would not wilfully draw so near the brink of hell, nor be looking on the forbidden fruit, nor dallying with allurements, nor hearkening to the deceiver or his messengers. It is ignorance of the weakness and badness of your hearts, that maketh you so confident of yourselves, as to think that you can hear any thing, and see any thing, and approach the snare, and treat with the deceiver without any danger. Self-acquaintance would cause more fear and self-suspicion.

It

If you should escape well a while in your selfchosen dangers, you may catch that at last that may prove your woe. Temptation puts you on a combat with the powers of the earth, and flesh, and hell! And is toil and danger your delight? "Danger is never overcome without danger," saith Seneca. is necessary valour to charge through all which you are in; but it is temerarious fool-hardiness to seek for danger, and invite such enemies, when we are so weak. Goliath's "give me a man to fight with," is a prognostic of no good success. Rather foresee all your dangers to avoid them; understand where each temptation lieth, that you may go another way if possible. Chastity is endangered in delights; humility in riches; piety in business; truth in too

66

much talk; and charity in this world."-Bernard. Alas! did we but think what temptations did with a Noah, a Lot, a David, a Solomon, a Peter, we would be afraid of the enemy and weapon that such worthies have been wounded by, and of the quicksands where they have so dangerously fallen. When Satan durst assault the Lord himself, what hope will he have of such as we? When we consider the millions that are blinded, and hardened, and damned by temptations, are we in our wits if we will cast ourselves into them?

10. Self-acquaintance would confute temptations, and easily resolve the case when you are tempted. Did you considerately know the preciousness of your souls, and your own concerns, and where your true felicity lieth, you would abhor allurements, and encounter them with that argument of Christ, "What shall it profit a man, if he win the world and lose his soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" The fear of man would be conquered by a greater fear, as the Lord commandeth: "And I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do: but I will forewarn you whom you shall fear; fear him, which, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell yea, I say unto you, Fear him."

11. It is unacquaintedness with themselves, that makes men quarrel with the word of God, rejecting it when it suits not with their deceived reason, and to be offended with his faithful ministers, when they cross them in their opinions or ways, or deal with them with that serious plainness, which the weight of the case, and their necessity doth require. Alas, sirs!

if you were acquainted with yourselves, you would know that the holy rule is straight, and the crookedness is in your conceits and misapprehensions; and that your frail understandings should rather be suspected than the word of God; and that your work is to learn and obey the law, and not to censure it; and that quarrelling with the holy word which you should obey, will not excuse, but aggravate your sin; nor save you from the condemnation, but fasten it, and make it greater. You would know that it is more wisdom to stoop than to contend with God; and that it is not your physicians, nor the medicine, that you should fall out with, but the disease.

12. Self-acquaintance would teach men to be charitable to others, and cure the common censoriousness, and envy, and malice of the world. Hath thy neighbour some mistakes about the disputable points of doctrine, or doubtful modes of discipline or worship? Is he for the opinion, or form, or policy, or ceremony, which thou dislikest? Or is he against those which thou approvest? Or afraid to use them, when thou thinkest them laudable? If thou know thyself, thou darest not break charity or peace for this. Thou darest not censure or despise him: but wilt remember the frailty of thy own understanding, which is not infallible in matters of this kind; and in many things is certainly mistaken, and needs forbearance as well as he. Thou wouldst be afraid of inviting God or man to condemn thyself, by thy condemning others; and wouldst think with thyself:

If every error, of no more importance, in persons that hold the essentials of religion, and conscientiously practise what they know, must go for heresy,

or make men sectaries, or cut them off from the favour of God, or the communion of the church, or the protection of the magistrate, and subject them to damnation, to misery, to censures, and reproach; alas, what then must become of so frail a wretch as I, of so dark a mind, of so blameable a heart and life, that am like to be mistaken in matters so great, where I least suspect it!' It is ignorance of themselves, that makes men so easily think ill of their brethren, and entertain all hard or mis-reports of them, and look at them so strangely, or speak of them so contemptuously and bitterly, and use them so uncompassionately, because they are not in all things of their opinion and way. They consider not their own infirmities, and that they teach men how to use themselves. The falls of brethren would not be over-aggravated, nor be the matter of insult or contempt, but of compassion, if men knew themselves. This is implied in the charge of the Holy Ghost: "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted: bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." The Pharisee, that seeth not the beam of formality and hypocrisy in his own eye, is most censorious against the motes of tolerable particular errors in his brother's eye. None more uncharitable against the real or supposed errors or slips of serious believers, than hypocrites, that have no saving, serious faith and knowledge, but place their religion in opinion and show, and wholly err from the path of life.

13. It is ignorance of themselves that makes men