SERMON XIV.

Self-Examination.

19AIAH I. 3.

The ox knoweth his owner, and the afs his mafter's crib'; -but Ifrael doth not know,-my people doth not confider.

a fevere but an affectionate reproach of the prophet's, laid against the Ifraelites, which may fafely be applied to every heedlefs, and unthankful people, who are neither won by GOD's mercies, or terrified by his punishments. There is a giddy, thoughtless, intemperate spirit gone forth into the world, which poffeffes the generality of mankind, and the reafon the world is undone, is, because the world does not confider, confiders neither aweful regard to God-or the true relation themfelves bear to him.-Could they confider this, and learn to weigh the causes, and

compare the confequences of things, and to exercise the reafon, which God has put into us for the government and direction of our lives,-there would be fome hopes of a reformation :-but as the world goes, there is no leifure for fuch enquiries, and fo full are our minds of other matters, that we have not time to ask, or a heart to answer the queftions we ought to put to ourselves.

Whatever our condition is, 'tis good to be acquainted with it in time, to be able to fupply what is wanting,—and examine the ftate of our accounts, before we come to give them up to an impartial judge.

The most inconfiderate fee the reasonablenefs of this,-there being few, I-believe, either fo thoughtless, or even fo bad, but that they fometimes enter upon this duty, and have some short intervals of felf-examination, which they are forced upon, if from no other motive, yet at least to free themfelves from the load and oppreffion of fpirits they must neceffarily be fubject to without it.——————

But as the fcripture frequently intimates -and obfervation confirms it daily,that there are many miftakes attending the discharge of this duty,I cannot make the remainder of this dif course more useful, than by a fhort enquiry into them. I fhall therefore, first, beg leave to remind you of fome of the many unhappy ways, by which we often fet about this irkfome tafk of examining our works, without being either the better or the wifer for the employ

ment.

And first then let us begin with that which is the foundation of almost all the other false measures we take in this matter, that is, the fetting about the examination of our works, before we are prepared with honeft difpofitions to amend them.-This is beginning the work at the wrong end. Thefe previous difpofitions in the heart, are the wheels that should make this work go eafily and fuccefsfully forwards, and to take them off, and proceed without them, 'tis no miracle, if, like Pharaoh's

chariots, they that drive them,-drive them heavily along.

Befides, if a man is not fincerely inclined to reform his faults,-'tis not likely he should be inclined to fee them,nor will all the weekly preparations that ever were wrote, bring him nearer the point;-fo that with how ferious a face foever he begins to examine, he no longer does the office of an enquirer;but an apologist, whose business is not to fearch for truth -but fkilfully to hide it. So long-therefore, as this pre-engagement lafts betwixt the man and his old habits, there is little prospect of proving his works to any good purpose-of whatever kind they are, with so strong an interest and power on their fide.-As in other trials, fo in this, 'tis no wonder, if the evidence is puzzled and confounded, and the feveral facts and circumftances fo twisted from their natural shapes, and the whole proof fo altered and confirmed on the other fide,as to leave the last state of that man even worse than the firft.