made the business of their lives: or, as if the profits, and pleasures, and vainglory of this world, did better deserve it than their Creator, and their own souls, and the heavenly inheritance. But if their eyes were opened to see where they stand, and what they are, and what are their dangers and necessities, how thankful would they be for one year, one month, one day, one hour, to repent and cry to God for mercy! And how sensibly would they perceive that a hundred years' time is not too long to spend in serious preparation for eternity! They have now the faithful ministers of Christ, inviting them in his name to come to him and receive the riches of his grace, and "beseeching them in his stead to be reconciled unto God." (Matt. xxii; 2 Cor. v. 19, 20.) But they stop their ears, and harden their hearts, and stiffen their necks, and love not to be disturbed in their sins, but are angry with those that are solicitous for their salvation, and revile them as too precise and strict, that tell them of the one thing needful, and persuade them to choose the better part, and tell them where their sin will leave them. They take them for their friends that will encourage them in the way that God condemneth, and be merry with them in the way to endless sorrow, and flatter them into security and impenitency till the time of grace be past; but they hate them as their enemies that faithfully reprove them, and tell them of their folly, and call them to a safer, better way. Alas, sirs, there would not be so many nations, congregations, and souls now left in darkness and misery by their own doing, having driven away the mercy of the Gospel, and thrust their faithful teachers from them, if they knew themselves. Men would not triumph in their own calamity, when they have expelled their faithful teachers, (the dust of whose feet, the sweat of their brows, the tears of their eyes, and the fervent prayers and groans of their hearts must witness against them,) if they knew themselves. They would not be like a madman that glorieth that he hath beaten away his physician and his friends, and is left to himself, if they knew themselves. When they have the earnest calls of the Word without, and convictions and urgings of the Spirit of God, and their consciences within, they would not wilfully go on, and cast these mercies at their heels, if they knew themselves. They have leave to join in the communion of saints, and to enjoy the benefit of holy society in prayer, and conference, and mutual love and spiritual assistance, and in the public worship of God: but they pass these by, as having more of trouble and burden than of mercy, because they little know themselves. And their inferior mercies of health, and wealth, and food, and raiment, and friends, and accommodations, they misesteem and misuse; and value them but as provision for the flesh, and the satisfaction of their sensual and inordinate desires, and not as their necessary provision for their duty in the way to heaven! And therefore they are most thankful for their greatest snares: for that honour and abundance which are stronger temptations than they can overcome for those fleshly contentments and delights, which are the enemies of grace, and the prison of their noblest faculties, and the undoing of their souls. If they could for shame speak out, they would thank God more for a whore, or a successful game, or the favour of their earthen gods, or for preferment, or commodity, lands or houses, than ever they did for all the offers of Christ and grace, and all the invitations to a holy life. For there is much more joy and pleasure in their hearts for the former than the latter. And self-ignorance will also corrupt your thanksgiving, and turn it into sin and folly. Is it not shame and pity to hear an unpardoned enemy of holiness, and of God, to thank God that he is justified and reconciled to God, and adopted to be his child, and made a member of Jesus Christ? And to hear a carnal, unregenerate person give thanks for his regeneration and sanctification by the Holy Ghost? As it is to hear a leper give thanks for perfect health, or a fool or madman thank God for making him wiser than his neighbours? Is it not pity to hear a miserable soul thank God for the grace which he never had? and one that is near eternal misery to thank God for making him an heir of glory? O how many have thanked God pharisaically for the pardon of their sins, that must for ever suffer for those sins! How many have thanked him for giving them the assured hopes of glory, that must be thrust out into endless misery! As I have known many, that by their friends and by themselves have been flattered into confident hopes of life, when they were ready to die, have thanked God that they were pretty well, and the worst was past; which, in the eyes of judici- ous standers-by, was not the least aggravation of their sad and deplorable state. Methinks it is one of the saddest spectacles in the world to hear a man thanking God for the assurance of salvation, that is in a state of condemnation, and likely to be in hell for ever! These absurdities could not corrupt your highest duties, and turn them into sin, if you knew yourselves. A man that knoweth his own necessities and unworthiness, is thankful for a little to God and man. Mercy is as no mercy, where there is no sense of need or misery. Sapienti notum est quanti res quæque taxanda sit,' saith Seneca. Therefore God useth to humble them so low in the work of conversion, whom he meaneth ever after to employ in the magnifying of his grace. And then that which is folly and hypocrisy from a Pharisee, will be an acceptable sacrifice from a humble, grateful soul; and he that by grace is differenced from other men, may (modestly) thank God that he is not as other men. For had he nothing more to thank God for, than the ungodly world, he would be rejected and perish with the world: and if he have more than the world, and yet be no more thankful than the world, he would be guilty of greater unthankfulness than the world. Non est superbia elati, sed confessio non ingrati: et habere te cognosce, et nihil ex te habere; ut nec superbus sis, nec ingratus: Dic Deo tuo, quoniam sanctus sum quia sanctificasti me: quia accepi, non quæ habui; quia tu dedisti, non quæ ego merui:' saith Augustine. This is not the pride of one lift up, but the acknowledgement of one that is not unthankful: Know that thou hast, and know that thou hast nothing of thyself, that thou mayest neither be proud, nor yet unthankful. Say to thy God, I am holy, for thou hast sanctified me: for I have received what I had not; and thou hast given me what I deserved not. The thanksgiving of a faithful soul is so far from being displeasing to God as a pharisaical ostentation, that it is a great and excellent duty, and a most sweet and acceptable sacrifice. "Offer unto God thanksgivingHe that offereth praise glorifieth me." (Psal. 1. 14. 23.) 8. And as to the Lord's-supper, what work they are there like to make that are unacquainted with themselves, you may conjecture from the nature of the work, and the 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 mercy would appear in a sacrament 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 |
