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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 fhould do this great thing?

WE have a very fignal inftance of the

deceitfulness of the heart, reprefented

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to us in the perfon of Hazael; who was fent to the prophet Elifha, to inquire of the Lord, concerning his mafter 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 fhame and confufion, asked, Why weepeth my lard ? he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the chik dren of Ifrael: their firong-holds wilt thou set on fire, and

* The manuscript title-page of the following fermon being loft, and no memorandums writ upon it, as there were upon the others, when and where it was preached, made the editor doubtful whether he should print it as the Dean's or not. But its being found amongst the same papers; and the hand, although writ fomewhat better, having a great fimilitude to the Dean's, made him willing to lay it before the public, that they might judge whether the ftyle and manner alfo do not render it ftill more probable to be his. Dublin edition.I fhall take no notice of this sermon, as it is evidently not composed by the Dean. Orrery.

and their young men wilt thou flay with the fword, and wilt dafb their children, and rip up their women with child. Thus much did the man of God fay and know of him, by a light darted into his mind from heaven. But Hazael, not knowing himself fo 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 inftances of cruelty and inhumanity: What, fays he, is thy fervant a dog, that he fhould 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 mafter, 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 pafs, they are wonderfully unacquainted with their own temper and difpofition, and know very little of what paffeth within them: for, of so 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 fymptoms of the vice appearing upon every occafion, can look with fuch an impartial eye upon himfelf, as to believe, that the imputation thrown upon him, is not altogether groundless and unfair? who, if he were told,

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told, by men of a difcerning fpirit and a strong conjecture, of all the evil and abfurd 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 inftance, tell an angry perfon, that he is weak and impotent, and of no confiftency of mind; tell him, that fuch or fuch a little accident, which he may then defpife, and think much below a paffion, fhall hereafter make him fay and do feveral abfurd, indifcreet, and mifbecoming things: he may perhaps own, that he hath a fpirit of refentment within him, that will not let him be impofed on; but he fondly imagines, that he can lay a becoming reftraint upon it when he pleafes, although it is ever running away with him into fome indecency or other.

Therefore, to bring down the words of my text to our prefent occafion, I fhall endeavour, in a 'further profecution of them, to evince the great neceffity of a nice and curious infpection into the feveral reccffes of the heart; that being the sureft and the shorteft method that a wicked man can take to reform himfelf. For, let us but ftop the fountain, and the ftreams will spend and wafte themfelves 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 fhall find, that we have begun at the wrong end of our duty, and that

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

But, in order to a clearer explanation of the point, I shall 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 reafons 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 feveral windings and turnings, and under that infinite variety of shapes and appearances which it putteth on, would be a difficult and almost impoffible undertaking: so that I fhall confine myfelf to such as have a nearer reference to the present oecafion, and do, upon a closer view, fhew 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 mifcarriages of the time paft, and a full purpose and refolution of amendment for

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the time to come. And now, to fhew the falfenefs of the heart in both these parts of repentance. And,

Firft, As to a hearty forrow for the fins and mifcarriages of the time paft: Is there à more ufual 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 ftep forth into practice, and fhew itself in a holy converfation? Nay, fome 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 drefs of a contrite heart, which another heart, as hard as the nether milftone, may as well put on. For tears and fighs, however in some perfons they may be decent and commendable expreffions of a godly forrow, are neither neceffary, nor infallible figns of a true and unfeigned repentance: not neceffary, becaufe, fometimes, and in fome perfons, the inward grief and anguish of the mind may be too big to be expreffed by fo little a thing as a tear; and then it turneth its edge inwards 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

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