SERMON V.

The DIFFICULTY OF KNOWING ONE'S SELF.*

2 KINGS viii. 13. part of it.

And Hazael faid, But what, is thy fervant a dog, that he should do this great thing?

7 E have

W a very fignal instance of the deceitfulness of the heart, represented to us in the person of Hazael; who was fent to the prophet Elisha, to inquire of the Lord, concerning his master the King of Syria's recovery. For the man of God having told him, that the King might recover from the diforder he was then labouring under, began to fet and faften his countenance upon him of a fudden, and to break out into the most violent expreffions of forrow, and a deep concern for it: whereupon, when Hazael, full of shame and confufion, asked, Why weepeth my lord? he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the chil dren of Ifrael: their firong-holds wilt thou set on fire, and and their young men wilt thou flay with the sword, and wilt dafb their children, and rip up their women with child. Thus much did the man of God say and know of him, by a light darted into his mind from heaven. But Hazael, not knowing himself so well as the other did, was startled and amazed at the relation, and would not believe it poffible, that a man of his temper could ever run over into fuch enormous instances of cruelty and inhumanity: What, says he, is thy fervant a dog, that he should do this great thing?

And yet, for all this, it is highly probable, that he was then that very man he could not imagine himself to be: for we find him, on the very next day after his return, in a very treacherous and disloyal manner, murdering his own master, and ufurping his kingdom; which was but a prologue to the fad tragedy which he afterwards acted upon the people of Ifrael.

And now the case is but very little better with most men, than it was with Hazael. However it cometh to pass, they are wonderfully unacquainted with their own temper and disposition, and know very little of what passeth within them : for, of fo many proud, ambitious, revengeful, envying, and ill-natured perfons that are in the world, where is there one of them, who, although he hath all the symptoms of the vice appearing upon every occafion, can look with such an impartial eye upon himself, as to believe, that the imputation thrown upon him, is not altogether groundless and unfair? who, if he were told,

3

told, by men of a difcerning spirit and a strong conjecture, of all the evil and absurd things which that false heart of his would, at one time or other, betray him into, would not believe as little, and "wonder as much, as Hazael did before him ? 'Thus, for instance, tell an angry person, that he is weak and impotent, and of no confiftency of mind; tell him, that such or fuch a little accident, which he may then despise, and think much below a paffion, shall hereafter make him say and do several abfurd, indiscreet, and misbecoming things: he may perhaps own, that he hath a spirit of refentment within him, that will not let him be imposed on; but he fondly imagines, that he can lay a becoming restraint upon it when he pleases, although it is ever running away with him into fome indecency or other.

Therefore, to bring down the words of my text to our present occafion, I shall endeavour, in a 'further profecution of them, to evince the great neceffity of a nice and curious inspection into the feveral recefses of the heart; that being the surest and the shorteft method that a wicked man can take to reform himself. For, let us but stop the fountain, and the streams will spend and waste themselves away in a very little time: but if we go about, like children, to raife a bank, and to stop the current, not taking notice, all the while, of the fpring which continually feedeth it; when the next flood of a temptation rifeth, and breaketh in upon it, then we shall find, that we have begun at the wrong end of our duty, and that

we

we are very little more the better for it, than if we had fat still, and made no advances at all.

But, in order to a clearer explanation of the point, I fhall speak to these following particulars.

1. By endeavouring to prove, from particular instances, that man is generally the most ignorant creature in the world of himself.

2. By inquiring into the grounds and reasons of this ignorance.

3. And lastly, By proposing several advantages that do most affuredly attend a due improvement in the knowledge of ourselves.

I. First then, To prove that man is generally the most ignorant creature in the world of himfelf:

To purfue the heart of man through all the inftances of life, in all its several windings and turnings, and under that infinite variety of shapes and appearances which it putteth on, would be a difficult and almost impossible undertaking: fo that I shall confine myfelf to such as have a nearer reference to the present oecafion, and do, upon a closer view, shew themselves through the whole business of repentance. For we all know what it is to repent; but whether he repenteth him truly of his fins or not, who can know it?

Now, the great duty of repentance, is chiefly made up of these two parts; a hearty forrow for the follies and miscarriages of the time past, and a full purpose and resolution of amendment for the

the time to come. And now, to shew the falseness of the heart in both these parts of repentance. And,

First, As to a hearty forrow for the fins and miscarriages of the time past: Is there a more usual thing than for a man to impose upon himself, by putting on a grave and demure countenance, by cafting a fevere look into his past conduct, and making fome few pious and devout reflections upon it, and then to believe that he hath repented to an excellent purpose, without ever letting it step forth into practice, and shew itself in a holy conversation ? Nay, some perfons do carry the deceit a little higher; who, if they can but bring themselves to weep for their fins, are then full of an ill-grounded confidence and fecurity; never confidering, that all this may prove to be no more than the very garb and outward dress of a contrite heart, which another heart, as hard as the nether milstone, may as well put

For tears and fighs, however in some perfons they may be decent and commendable exprefsions of a godly forrow, are neither neceffary, nor infallible figns of a true and unfeigned repentance: not necessary, because, sometimes, and in some perfons, the inward grief and anguish of the mind may be too big to be expressed by fo little a thing as a tear; and then it turneth its edge ținwards upon the mind; and, like those wounds of the body which bleed inwardly, it generally proves the most fatal and dangerous to the whole body of fin: not infallible, because